All posts tagged Ford

Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said he is open to working with companies trying to shake up the auto industry’s traditional business models, such as smartphone app car-hailing services Uber Technologies or Lyft.

“Whether it’s Uber or Lyft, or another (auto company), we are open to working with them,” Ford said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Friday. “Rather than turning our back on them, or ignoring them, we are both saying we would like to get to know them and, where it makes sense, work together.”

Uber and Lyft, which enable people to use their personal car to earn money giving rides to others, are growing in popularity, creating concern among auto industry executives that they could suppress demand for new vehicles. Read More »

In Ford’s 2014 trend report, where the company seemingly jumps from the role of carmarker into seasoned psychoanalyst, one observation really stuck out: that of “chronic public journaling.” Ford isn’t the only company to remark on the well-covered topic of digital expression. Apple’s tear-jearker holiday ad takes note too (and turns it on its head). Read More »

If Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally is feeling any heat from his board of directors to quash speculation that he’s angling to become CEO of software giant Microsoft Corp., he didn’t show it Thursday evening at the company’s holiday party for the automotive press.

Ford’s board met Thursday, and Mr. Mulally arrived afterwards at the media party looking trim in his trademark blue blazer. He bantered with reporters about his recent appearance on the Colbert Report to pitch the new Ford Mustang. Comedian Stephen Colbert, in character as a blustery cable news pundit, tried to rattle Mr. Mulally by calling his bailout-taking rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC “bolsheviks,” and suggesting that the main reason people bought the Ford Mustang in the 1960s was to “get laid.”

The wisecrack about the Mustang did throw Mr. Mulally for a moment, but he deftly parried Mr. Colbert’s jabs at GM and Chrysler, saying that Ford had supported the bailouts as the right response to the crisis, even though Ford financed its own turnaround.

Mr. Mulally reminisced about his early days at Ford in 2006 when many in Detroit’s media (and many executives at Ford) questioned whether the long-time Boeing Co. executive might be in over his head dealing with the complexities of the car business. Mr. Mulally’s reply was to cheerfully remind questioners that a Boeing 777 had many more parts than a car, and it had to stay in the air.

Ford’s board holds its monthly meeting today and the endless speculation about whether Chief Executive Alan Mulally will take the reins at Microsoft isn’t on the agenda.

Mulally and the company have repeatedly suggested he will remain with the auto maker, but it’s hard to imagine that the topic won’t come up — at least on the sidelines. Mike Ramsey reports:

Ford has planned for Mr. Mulally’s exit since last November, when the company named Mark Fields, 52, to become its operating chief, setting up a clear successor. Mr. Fields took over many of Mr. Mulally’s responsibilities. At that time, Ford said Mr. Mulally would stay through at least 2014. The speculation surrounding the move to Microsoft, however, may have sped up the timetable for his departure, said two people familiar with the matter.

Car companies are using advanced analytics to learn about what their customers need and how their cars are faring on the road, as detailed in a Special Report article. Much of the data for such efforts will come from sensors and cameras, which are rapidly proliferating throughout the industry.

Manufacturers such as Ford, Audi and Toyota have begun outfitting their cars with such technology, hoping to help manufacturers better market their products while also greatly enhancing the way cars interact with drivers and their surroundings. Read More »

Ford launches a new mobile app development program that connects developers with Ford’s engineers. Ford Connected Services Solutions director Doug VanDagens joins digits from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Read More »